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Opening Innovation: Commerce and Creativity at the 2006 O'Reilly Open Source Convention

Sebastopol, CA--For over a decade, OSCON, the annual O'Reilly Open Source Convention, has brought together leaders, developers, hackers, and practitioners of every open source persuasion to plumb core issues in the open source community. Venerable technologies like Perl, Python, and PHP are explored alongside promising upstarts like Ruby on Rails, Asterisk, and Ajax. From multimedia, collaboration, and project best practices to Microsoft Windows-based open source projects, Enterprise Java techniques, Linux kernel skills, and so much more, OSCON investigates what's possible in open source. Registration has just opened; early discount pricing is in effect until June 5.

This year, OSCON will focus on the connections between business and open source. As OSCON program chair Nat Torkington explains, "The growth in stability and scope of open source has been part of this evolving symbiotic relationship between commerce and creativity. If you're a business, you're probably struggling to understand how decisions are made in the chaotic world of open source. If you're an open source project you're probably wondering how to get taken seriously by the businesses you want to work with. We're tackling law, marketing, public relations, engineering, and the overall issue of governance."

Another facet of this year's convention that will explore the relationship between open source and business is a special all-day event brand new to OSCON: The O'Reilly Radar Executive Briefing. The Executive Briefing, being organized by open-source-meets-business expert Matt Asay and O'Reilly CEO Tim O'Reilly, will give a limited number of attendees an exclusive opportunity to meet with the innovators, entrepreneurs, and companies destined to have a significant impact on the world of open source in the year ahead.

Tracks at OSCON include: business; databases; emerging topics; Java; JavaScript and Ajax; Linux; Perl, celebrating the tenth year of the Perl Conference; PHP; Python; Security; Ruby, including Ruby on Rails; web, including Apache; and Windows. A small sample of the diverse speakers and topics featured in the hundreds of sessions and tutorials at OSCON includes:

"Python 3000," Guido van Rossum

"Ajax Optimization Techniques," Kevin Henrikson

"Asterisk Inside and Out," Brian Capouch

"Open Source, APIs, and the Summer of Code at Google," Chris DiBona

"Open Source Clue Training: How to Market to People Who Hate Marketing," Doc Searls

A sold-out exhibit hall is expected for this year's event. Sponsors thus far include Greenplum, Sun Microsystems, HP, IBM, Ticketmaster, ActiveState, Autodesk, Covalent, Google, Intel, and Laszlo Systems. Attendees will also be able to participate in community meetings organized by OSDL, OSU, and others, birds of a feather sessions, receptions, parties, awards, games, and other extracurricular activities.

The O'Reilly Open Source Convention, happening July 24-28, 2006 at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon, is where over 2000 coders, sys admins, entrepreneurs, and business people working in free and open source software gather to share ideas, debate, make deals, and plan for the next round of open source innovation.

O'Reilly Emerging Telephony Conference, January/February 2007 in the San
Francisco Bay Area

About O'Reilly

O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O'Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying "faint signals" from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.